During the Christmas Eve Mass, Pope Benedict XVI urged the faithful to

Let us ask the Lord to help us see through the superficial glitter of this season…

All well and good, except that he did this while wearing gold brocade, sitting on a golden throne surrounded by golden trappings, holding up a book festooned in golden decorations. Not to mention the Vatican’s vast wealth in cash and treasures.

“How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?”
—Jesus

You see, the pontiff wants to continue the Roman Catholic Church’s anti-gay pogrom, but you wouldn’t expect him to sell a ring or a scepter to pay for the discredited ex-gay “therapy”, the ballot attacks on marriage equality and the forthcoming anti-choice and anti-equality campaign dressed up in a cloak of “religious liberty“, now would you? Get real! He wants you to sacrifice your unemployment checks to pay for his hate machine. Get with the reason for the season, already!

Thank heavens that the vast majority of American Catholics support LGBT equality and have long since learned to tune out a misguided pope.